-The Hindu The assault on the Right to Education Act and government schools is motivated. It is definitely not in the interest of India’s children, especially those from less privileged households The public education system (PES) has for long been under fire. It is being painted as non-functioning, wasteful and un-improvable. The Right to Education Act (RTE) was designed to improve this system. Therefore, it is natural that the RTE will also...

-The Hindu Business Line The Economic Survey’s efforts to link ‘excess’ labour regulation to this practice do not stand up to scrutiny The Economic Survey has unconvincingly linked the practise of contract labour to an excess of labour regulation — what it calls ‘regulatory cholesterol’. The Survey alleges that to negotiate the regulatory “cholesterol” in labour law firms resort to contract labour. This is a contestable view. According to the Survey, extensive use...

-Livemint.com Regulation and disclosure of political funding and lobbying activities is no guarantee for lack of political corruption and vested interests influencing policies New Delhi: The recent sting by news portal Naradanews showing Trinamool Congress legislators accepting cash to lobby for a private company has once again exposed the dark underbelly of corruption in Indian politics. But this is not the first time. In 2005, 11 MPs were expelled from Parliament after a...

-The Hindu The Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana scheme, which recognises the importance of clean cooking energy, is welcome. But we need to focus on issues of cash flow, awareness, availability and administration Within a fortnight of the recently announced Union Budget, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs approved the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana, earmarking Rs. 8,000 crore for it, with the aim of providing five crore subsidised Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG)...

-Business Standard Dr A B P Pandey, Director General and Mission Director of UIDAI speaks to Nitin Sethi on how the efficacy of Aadhaar will be monitored and what challenges it faces as it reaches the 100 crore enrolment mark. * Challenges now that the law is in place… Once the law is notified, then one be the procedural challenge. Government will have to notify necessary rules under the law and UIDAI will...